SPARKS, Nev. (KRNV & MyNews4.com) - Stacey Cooper, Principal of Sparks Middle School, has been confirmed to be on leave.

When asked why she was on the leave, the Washoe County School District told News 4 in a statement: "We continue to focus on the healing and recovery process and ensuring our staff and students at Sparks Middle School have all of the support they need during this difficult time. This consists of working with several staff members to address their requests and needs. This includes Ms. Cooper, who is currently away from the school to address her needs. We are committed to assisting our staff, while, at the same time, maintaining a focus on our students' emotional state and their continued academic progress."

You are just trying to blame the school for the neglect of the parents. It's truly despicable.
You don't know if he was bullied at school or not, and considering the new bullying law, I seriously doubt any "bullying" happened there.

My point all along is I don't care if he was bullied, if we was abused, or if we wasn't, my point is their are a million things he could have done if he felt bullying, the week before his school was focused on bullying, you think they just showed him a video, but didn't give those kids resources, or tell them who to talk to if they felt bullied????
You cannot murder people because you are sad, or feel inadequate, or are emotional, or if you are bullied. The minute you murder someone, especially someone who was innocent and did nothing to you, you get no sympathy.
If a husband murders his wife because she is leaving him, do we feel bad for the husband for how upset he must have been.
When a father kills his daughter, and then kills himself, do we sympathize with the how he felt he had no hope in his custody battle.
No we don't, so no sympathy for a twelve year old for killing someone, bullied or not.

I am not a friend of the family renojim, I don't even live in Reno! And I agree with MacnNatesMom, this kid was being bullied! Renojim simply refuses to see this even after kids that went to the school have given interviews and stated the same! Does it justify what happened? absolutely not! but you can't keep your head buried in the ground and think that it didn't contribute to what happened! This kid was getting it at school and home and probably felt he had no hope! Hey renojim the correct spelling is "also" not alos! maybe you need to proof your own spelling! Renojim, if his anger was at his family why didn't he harm any of them! You are clueless!

This whole situation is terrible. I feel bad for everyone involved. Because I have a child that attends the school, I have spent a lot of time trying to find out what exactly happened. Based on the information I have gathered (much from the neighborhood children) this child was bullied. I agree that this does not take the responsibility away from his parents for leaving a fire arm where he could get it, that was wrong and needs to be prevented from ever happening again. I heard that he had an incident with the children who were injured the Friday before the break and the same day he was shown the "Bully" film at school. My assumption is that after stewing on what happened for a week, he snapped. I do not think he intended to harm the teacher at all, he was standing in front of one of his "targets". He had ample opportunity to hurt so many children that were gathered, and yet only 2 were shot. The other has done national interviews about how the gun was aimed at him as Mr. Landsberry stepped in the way. I hate that this happened and I hope that we can learn from it and prevent it from EVER happening again. Bullying can NOT be tolerated on any level and more needs to be done to help these troubled kids. Also, everyone who owns a firearm needs to keep them out of the wrong hands or be held responsible when something happens.

Don't mind retired, he is a member or friend of the family. Alos indeed is one word so please be careful of who you call ignorant. The boy was abused at home by his father, which in turn caused a child to learn angry and violent behavior. What ever happened at school, which isn't in law enforcements eyes bullying in regards to how the law describes it, was the trigger for his anger. And all this boy had to do was reach up on top of the refrigerator to find a loaded firearm, take it to school, and release his anger on the people he see's everyday. If INDEED it was bullying, then why shoot a teacher? He didn't shoot him by accident, he did it deliberately, so was it the authority figure he was after, maybe in regards to the child abuse he suffered, and that is a fact because law enforcement did release that info? So scape goat is mom and dad for not being responsible parents. Charges coming soon I hope.

We do remember NONE of the staff was allowed to speak publicly about the shooting, and none have to any great extent.
In truth, the school district is NOT responsible for what happened, but we KNOW there will be civil suits, and their insurance company is being primed for those suits to pay people out. The amount could be in the millions.
They also are well aware of the bullying law, so there wasn't any "bullying" that happened and is irrelevant anyway. This was a classic case of parents not doing their job in keeping firearms out of reach.
I will be watching VERY carefully what the staff fallout will be on this situation. With Martinez in charge now, NO principal is safe, even those who didn't do anything wrong.
Take a look at the principal who was at Double Diamond, I believe, when he was threatened by a parent and pressed charges. He resigned.

I see some great points being made here, and having been through the meat grinder of WCSD, I wouldn't put it past senior administration to scapegoat Ms. Cooper. However, I think she probably has suffered some health issues as a result of this. There may be other staff who are having to take time off as well.

Mrs. Cooper is on leave, but it isn't willingly or by her request (I'm sure if you cornered her for a quote, she'd refer you to the "District" for "comment"). The "District" says she needs "time", but if you ask the "District" how to spell that, it comes out as S-C-A-P-E-G-O-A-T. The "District" is looking for someone to blame internally for the shooting at Sparks Middle School, and who better to blame than the new principal who has only been on the job since August 2013 - two months before the shooting. The "District" has clamped down hard on all the staff of Sparks Middle School and do not want loose lips. Ask yourself how many interviews did the media have with teachers or staff? There is a whole different view than just what the "District" wants you to know. How do I know this? The "District" should be more careful when they speak on their home turf - people they think who are inconsequential or invisible are actually paying very close attention, and even if they don't have a conscience, believe it or not others do.....

IF the child was being bullied, I seriously doubt the school knew because the school takes such complaints very seriously. As a parent I've had to address this and know first-hand. Also don't forget the kid came back "angry" right after a week off. IF he was being bullied and it was that intense, then maybe it was happening outside of school. You have to go deeper on this. If you see his home life, you'll see it wasn't squeaky clean and the kid had many obvious issues, especially when you read between the lines on what the parents said. On top of that EVERYONE involved has lawyered up (the parents of the shooter were reading their statement from their lawyer's office!) and I think the "District" is hedging bets because they see maybe 3-4 lawsuits being levied against them for various aspects. When that happens, then you need a S-C-A-P-E-G-O-A-T and who do you think they picked for that role??? God forbid that the "District" actually accept any blame because we all know that they walk on water...